


To Love and Be Loved

by SmallAngryPlanet



Category: Call the Midwife
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, i mean ik they did but like for real u know, i think these two would get along so well and i hope yall agree
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:07:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25833967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmallAngryPlanet/pseuds/SmallAngryPlanet
Summary: Valerie and Delia get to talking at the end of a long day, and they find out they have more in common than either had anticipated. Things are often easier when you have a friend to listen who can truly understand!
Relationships: Delia Busby & Valerie Dyer, Delia Busby/Patsy Mount
Comments: 1
Kudos: 35





	To Love and Be Loved

**Author's Note:**

> Set mid-late season 6, after Val arrives but before Patsy returns or Lucille comes on the scene, but with no specific episode in mind! Just thought these two deserved a moment!

“Val, we’re friends, right?”

Valerie and Delia lay on the carpet of Delias room, listening to the wireless as it scratched out a faint signal from Radio Luxembourg. It had been a long, exhausting day, and almost everyone else was out for the evening; Trixie and Phyllis were delivering twins, and Barbara was with Tom, off somewhere being in love. The sisters were downstairs doing handicrafts and minding the phone, leaving the two nurses free to wind down for the night. It was the kind of tired, hazy evening where defenses come down and you find yourself willing to share bits of yourself you usually keep hidden. It was as one tune faded to an end and another took its place, smoke drifting through the air from Valerie’s second cigarette, that Delia had gently broken the silence that had settled between them.

“What, Delia? Of course we are, what do you mean by a question like that?”

There was a weight to the pause that followed this question. Valerie could feel a tension enter the room, and decided to let Delia say her piece when she was ready, allowing the languid vulnerability of the evening to take over.

“I know we’re _friends_ , silly.” Delia hesitated before she continued. “I just… to be honest, I’ve just been quite sad recently. And I feel like I can trust you in a way that I don’t trust most people. Like you’ve genuinely seen it all and wouldn’t judge me or even balk at my failings or my doubts or my differences. And frankly, if I don’t something to someone I think I’ll burst into a thousand pieces and nobody will know why or want to help clean up the rubble.”

“Oh Delia… well I’m glad you feel that you can trust me, ‘cause you can. And unless you’ve murdered someone in cold blood, I trust that you think that your so-called failings are more problematic that they really are... I’m here, chick, anything you need.”

“Thank you Val, you can’t know how much that means to me.”

Ray Charles floated out of the speakers as the two fell quiet. A few minutes passed before the silence was broken once more, this time by Valerie.

“So. If we’ve decided you can trust me, and you feel like you’re going to explode if you don’t say something, why don’t you go ahead and, y’know… say something?”

Valerie could hear a deep sigh over the music, and felt Delia shift, her arms crossing as she tried, it seemed, to make herself smaller.

“I guess,” Delia said, after a heavy pause, “I’ve been feeling a bit lonely these days. I live here, and I love it, but the nuns are a bit alien, aren’t they, kind of a family of their own. It’s like we’re the daughters and nieces and they’re the mothers and aunts and grans. They are all so kind, but there’s always going to be a disconnect, you know? And it’s the same with Phyllis. I love that woman with all my heart, I’d truly take a bullet for her, but she’s always going to be more of a parent than a friend to me. And even if she weren’t, you four, you and and Barbara and Trixie and Phyllis, you share more than just a home, don’t you, you share a job, and a passion, and you help each other in your toughest moments, and I can’t be that, and I just… don’t know where I fit. Which wouldn’t be so bad, but the thing is I knew where I fit before.”

Delia’s words were cut off as her voice wobbled dangerously. Valerie let the words sink in for a few moments before she spoke.

“This anything to do with Patsy leaving a while back, Deels?”

Another deep, steadying breath came from Delia’s direction

“You could say so. It’s so different now that she’s gone away, and I don’t even know when she’s coming back.”

“You two were close, weren’t you?”

“We are, I think, still. But I don’t know, and that’s the part that hurts. Things have gone quiet recently, she’s stopped writing so much. I would have never moved to Nonnatus if it weren’t for her, and now she’s gone, and I’m like a ghost.”

Valerie elbowed her side gently. “You feel pretty solid to me,” she teased.

“You know what I mean, Val,” Delia answered, smiling sadly.

“I dare say I do,” she replied softly. “If you don’t mind my asking, and please don’t think it’s a problem if the answer is yes… you and Patsy… I know you were very close, but were you…”

Delia took a shakey breath as Valerie’s sentence trailed into nothing.

“Yes, we were. We are, I mean. At least I hope we are.”

“You seem to really love her. There’s a blessing there, somewhere, I think, to love and be loved,” Val said, both their voices having dropped to a reverent whisper, barely audible over the radio.

“I guess that’s true. Can be hard to remember, when things ache so much.”

The silence that fell between them was softer this time, but both women could sense things hanging unsaid in the air, even still.

“Did you know?” Delia asked, after a few minutes. “About me, us, being… it’s just you don’t seem all that surprised, and you haven’t even met Patsy. How come you aren’t asking me a whole load of questions or reassuring me over and over that you would never out us to the nuns?"

“I can’t say I knew, but I guess I sensed it somehow, recognized it in you. You seem open but I can tell you hold your cards close to your chest, Delia Busby, even if people don’t seem to notice. I’m the same. I guess it’s not so hard to see it when you can recognize it in yourself as well.”

Valerie glanced over as realization washed over Delia.

“You mean… I guess you’ve never really had a bloke around, have you?” Delia smirked.

“Don’t sound so surprised! Though I’m glad to hear that I haven’t been too obvious!”

“Should have guessed with all those pinup pictures above your bed! Do you have… you know, a friend like my Patsy?”

“Can’t say I do. I meant what I said; It’s a blessing to love and to be loved. And not one I’ve received just yet.”

They lapsed into silence, finally at ease. Both women felt a weight lifted, even if the ache they felt was still there. They listened quietly, as the soft sounds of Elvis drifted around the room. Valerie soon heard a chuckle coming from Delia across the carpet.

“What are you on about?” Valerie said, her usual brash, joking tone returning to her voice. “I thought we were having a moment!”

“I was just thinking,” Delia giggled, “it seems that Nonnatus has become a home for nuns and spinsters and, well, women like us! The only man who seems to get any attention is the big man upstairs, and even him certainly not from everyone!”

“I’m sure Tom would disagree,” Valerie shot back, “and Christopher! Though I dare say there does seem to be quite the theme! Next thing you know Barbara and Trixie will be down at the Gateways too!”

“Oh, and wouldn’t that be fun!”

And with that the two descended into fits of laughter, the spell of the evening long since broken, and both women feeling just a bit lighter having let each other in.


End file.
